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General Baron de Charette died on October 9, 1911, at the age of 79. His widow, Tennessee-born Antoinette, Baronne de Charette, continued to live at La Basse Motte in Brittany. Here during World War I she entertained American troops on leave from the Western Front. After her death on February 3, l9l9, her obituary in a Nashville paper closed with this tribute:

On November 10, 1911 James W. (Will) Henning suffered a second and final failure, losing his seat on the New York Stock Exchange. This was a disaster from which he never recovered.

Despite his estranged wife Sue Henning’s opposition in 1909 to the marriage of their daughter, it must have given her some pride. She started a scrapbook about this time, the first items being newspaper clippings of the prominent New York wedding of her only child, Susanne, and Marquis Antoine de Charette.

James W. Henning was readmitted to the New York Stock Exchange on December 12, 1907 but, due to his lack of working capital, his prospects for success were not promising. Now, with relations with her husband deteriorating, Sue Henning decided to become directly involved in the Jersey cattle business. Allen Dale Farm in Shelby County, Kentucky ceased to be just a summer home; it became the focus of her personal and professional life.

In 1851, James Williamson Henning, Sr. (1813-1886), a surveyor and civil engineer who had made one of the early maps of Louisville, formed a partnership with his brother-in-law, Joshua Fry Speed (1814-1882). Speed, who had previously been Abraham Lincoln’s law partner in Springfield, Ill., was Lincoln’s best friend. After he became president, Lincoln asked both Speed and Henning to serve in his cabinet, an honor they both declined.

Allen Dale Farm, established in 1795, is one of the oldest farms in Shelby County. It is perhaps unique, for I am not aware of any other farms in the county, which have been continuously owned by members of the same family for 220 years.

Shortly after the death of Major John Allen in Frederick County, Virginia, in 1794, his widow Ann Pollock (Polk) Allen, and her ten children moved to Shelby County. Ann, whose parents were born in County Armagh, Ireland, shared common ancestry with President James K. Polk

One of the best sources of information about the attack of the 11th Suffolks, is John Garth’s, Tolkien and the Great War. J.R.R. Tolkien, Oxford scholar, later famous for his Lord of the Rings, participated with another unit in the Somme Campaign.

However, Robert Quilter Gilson, a Cambridge scholar and his close friend, served as a lieutenant in the 11th Suffolks, and Garth’s book contains dozens of references to this battalion, in which my father served. Both my father and Gilson were killed on the first day of the Battle of the Somme.

Lord Kitchener did not live to learn of the disaster that befell “Kitchener’s Volunteer Armies” on July 1, 1916, the first day of the Battle of the Somme. He was drowned on June 5, 1916 when HMS Hampshire, an armored cruiser just returned from the Battle of Jutland, which was carrying him to Russia for negotiations with Britain’s ally, struck a German mine near the Orkney Islands. Of its 655 crew and 7 passengers, only 12 crewmen survived.

A nice crowd, delicious food, mellow music and good fellowship made for a very successful annual fundraiser for Operation Care for the third year in a row.

The Mercy Omega Gala, Saturday night at Claudia Sanders Dinner House, raised more than $30,000 for Mercy Medical Clinic and the Omega House, a women’s shelter, run by Operation Care, said the organization’s executive director, Jeff Johnson.

On July 8, 1916, Florence Bareham, not knowing whether her husband, Reginald Bareham, my father, was alive or dead, gave birth to her only child, Ronald Reginald Bareham [later Van Stockum]. On the occasion of my Christening, Lady Waldstein, wife of Sir Charles Waldstein of Newton Hall Farm, for whom Reggie had worked, presented my mother with a set of engraved sterling silver baby utensils in a fitted case.

On July 5, 1916, the Commander of the 101st Infantry Brigade sent the following congratulatory message to the Commanding Officer of the 11th Suffolks, my father’s battalion, a component of his brigade:

A small body of men, which came under the command of Captain Osbert Harold Brown, was successful in reaching the enemy lines. Brown was in command of A Company of the 11th Suffolks, which, as the carrying company, was following the rest of the battalion with coils of wire, extra ammunition, tools, etc., and was not expected to fight.

Fun and fitness may not be a concept that meshes well for many people, and doubly so for some women when an exercise class involves wearing weighted boxing gloves part of the time.

But one class at the Family Activity Center transcends that image, as evidenced by the enthusiasm with which students do their punches and other moves, in a high calorie-burning workout that sometimes gets pretty intense, said Piloxing instructor Tristen Stansfield.

The tremendous and sustained artillery bombardment that had commenced on June 24 culminated in a crescendo during the hour preceding the attack. Its purposes were to create gaps in enemy barbed wire for use by advancing troops, and to kill enemy troops or keep them in their trenches or dugouts until they could be overrun in a bayonet charge.

No plan of operations extends with any certainty beyond the first contact with the main hostile force. – Field Marshal Helmuth von Moltke (1800-1891), known as “Moltke the Elder.”

The 11th Suffolks Battalion, a component of 101 Brigade of the 34th Division of III Corps, had the mission of capturing German positions immediately to the south of the village of La Boisselle, now a heap of rubble, on the Albert-Bapaume Road. On Z-Day at 6:30 a.m., the tempo of supporting artillery fire would increase.

A tremendous and sustained artillery bombardment commenced on June 24, 1916, lasting eight days and culminating in a crescendo of fire during the hour preceding the attack. It was described by Sir Andrew Wright, who had served as a lieutenant with my father in the 11th Suffolks, as “the biggest bombardment of all history.” Wright further writes in his history of the 11th Suffolks:

David Eaton, a former educator, Shelbyville City Council member and mayor, and current Simpsonville city administrator, went above and beyond this year in looking out for the best interest of the people of Simpsonville by spending a great deal of time and effort by doing all he could to promote new business and industry that came to his city in 2014.